An abrasive jet cutter generally operates by focusing a high pressure jet of fluid carrying entrained abrasive particles onto a work surface.
Abrasive jet cutting machines generally have a relatively small abrasive hopper near the cutting nozzle sufficient to supply the jet for less than 30 minutes. For production work, it is desirable to automatically fill this small hopper from a larger abrasive source.
Commonly, a large pressure pot of the type commonly used for sandblasting is filled with several hundred to a few thousand pounds of abrasive and then pressurized with air to around 50 psi. The air pressure forces the abrasive to flow through a small hose to the smaller hopper near the nozzle. When the small hopper is full, the abrasive around the hose outlet stops further abrasive from coming and the flow ceases.